Unconventional: Gay parents Charlie Condou, his partner Cameron and the mother Catherine, with 2 year old Georgia (Image: The Guardian)

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After a blissful weekend with his partner and two young children, actor Charlie Condou was packing his bags ready for the long commute back to work and another week away from his family.

As one of Coronation Street’s most popular stars Charlie had a string of powerful storylines and a hectic filming schedule in Manchester.

But as he prepared to leave his London home, four-year-old daughter Georgia threw her arms around his neck and said, sadly: “Daddy, I don’t want you to go away.”

That was the moment Charlie, 41, knew it was time to leave TV’s most popular soap for the sake of Georgia and her two-year-old brother Hal.

The gay actor, who lives with his partner of eight years Cameron Laux, says: “It was just getting too difficult. Georgia is at an age now where she was saying, ‘How long are you away for this week?’ and ‘When are you going to be back Daddy?’

“At my busiest I was getting home late on a Friday night and going back to Manchester on Sunday afternoon. I just wasn’t getting that time with my kids.”

So Charlie, who plays Corrie midwife Marcus Dent , will leave the show this summer in another dramatic storyline.

His character caused a stir last year when he fell for hairdresser and single mum Maria Connor. The pair moved in together and Marcus became a father figure to her son Liam.

But his departure will see him embroiled in a love triangle with Maria and Eileen Grimshaw’s gay son Todd.

“It just gets darker and darker and I imagine Marcus and Todd will end up together,” says Charlie.

“This is soap and Marcus and Maria was never going to end well. There was going to be no happy ever after.”

But Charlie has found real happiness in his life, despite once agonising over whether he we would ever be a dad.

He says: “When I came out my family were wonderful about it and it wasn’t an issue. The only thing my Mum said was, ‘It worries me because you’ve always wanted to be a parent.’ I was only 18 at the time and I remember thinking, ‘I’m determined to be a dad.’ But I knew it wouldn’t be simple for me.”

(Image: ITV)

It was after he met writer Cameron eight years ago that he began to contemplate fatherhood more ­seriously. He discussed it with a few female friends and discovered that actress Catherine Kanter was feeling her biological clock ticking.

Many years earlier they had joked that if she reached the age of 40 and was still single they would have a child together. That time arrived, they began to talk about it, then decided to go ahead with IVF treatment. To their joy, Catherine became pregnant.

Now the children spend half their time with Charlie and Cameron and the other half with their mum, who lives nearby.

Charlie says: “ It may not be a conventional family but it’s a very happy one. A lot of people would argue that it’s best for a child to grow up in a house with one mum and one dad, although there’s no evidence to suggest that’s the case. And if you’re going to go down that route, you need to look at the impact of divorce, which is really damaging to kids.

“We’re lucky, but we also work really hard at getting it right. We communicate about everything. If ever there is anything that doesn’t feel right or we’re not happy about, we just say it straight away.”

But he admits life is easier for gay parents since stars like Elton John and Ricky Martin became dads.

Charlie says: “When I was growing up there weren’t any gay parents in the public eye. So it’s great that I’m able to talk about it.

“I get a lot of letters from gay men and women saying it’s really nice to know that it’s an option for them.

“I haven’t had any negative reaction. When I’m out with Cameron and the kids, people stare, but probably because I’m on the telly. I live in North London though. It might be different if I lived in a village or somewhere more remote.”

(Image: ITV)

Charlie, who grew up in Soho and was a child actor, joined Coronation Street in 2007 as Marcus, the boyfriend of Sean Tully, played by Antony Cotton.

He left after a year but was tempted back three years later by a gay dad storyline which saw Sean and Marcus raising Sean’s young son Dylan.

But he’s never been entirely satisfied with his role in Corrie. He explains: “One of my big disappointments was that I went into a show that’s renowned for having great comedic characters and my character wasn’t one of them.

“He just wasn’t written that way. Some of us are there for the comedy and some of us are there for the drama and that’s absolutely understandable, but I’d like to do a bit more comedy now. I used to do a lot. I did a few series of Armstrong and Miller and then Nathan Barley for Channel 4 and I’d like to do more.”

Charlie’s showbiz pals are wishing him luck in his new acting ventures. He’s a friend of Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden, singer Lily Allen and a great mate of Robbie Williams.

When the singer first left Take That they shared a flat for two years.

“We met through mutual friends and he was going through a difficult phase,” Charlie recalls. “He’d put on a lot of weight, his solo career wasn’t happening and he was taking too many drugs.

“We just became friends. I managed to get him into rehab and then when he came out I moved in, initially just to give him a bit of support and help him through quite a tough time.

“We had a great time but then he moved to America and we lost touch. I’m sure if we saw each other again we’d be fine though. He’s a good guy.”

Although fatherhood has calmed down Charlie’s social life, being separated from his friends also made him question his future in the show.

“I’m a very sociable person but I rarely get to see my friends, partly because of the children and partly because of my job. Only last week I went out for dinner in Manchester with Bruno Langley and Ryan Thomas (Todd and Jason Grimshaw in Corrie) and got quite drunk, which was really nice. But I miss my old London friends.”

The departure of Julie Hesmondhalgh after 16 years as Hayley Cropper helped to give him itchy feet too.

“I asked Julie, ‘What was it that made you want to go?’?” he says. “She said she’d done a play and it had reminded her she was an actress and not just Hayley.

“I think she fell in love with acting again and she said she wanted to go off and do more of that.”

But there’s good news for fans who fear the cobbles just won’t be the same without kind-hearted Marcus.

Charlie reveals: “The producer said the door would be left open, so Marcus isn’t going to be killed off. That’s always a really nice thing to hear.

“I’m not under any illusions and saying I’m off to Hollywood. Obviously I want to do other things, but it’s nice to know that I could go back in the future.”